Help-Want to lock Time Machine back-up from being deleted

Hello there,
I used to have a macbook pro from november of 2006 that was loaded up with data from graduate school. As it was getting quite old, I wanted to get a newer laptop and chose the macbook air for many reasons. However, it doesn't have nearly as much storage/memory, so I could only transfer a fraction of the data files from my old laptop (pro) to the new one (air).
I am currently using TimeMachine to back up everything to a 4 terabyte external hard drive. Even though I originally transferred all the data via this drive and had a mirrored back up of everything in its entirety from my old macbook pro, now when I view the external hard drive only my macbook air is listed under Backups.backupdp.
I can still view all the original data and files from the macbook pro in my oldest back up, however, as I begin to fill up the hard drive I worry that this back up might eventually get deleted. Is there anyway to specifically cordone off this back up so that it is never deleted? I essentially want to lock it but am unsure if this is even possible, let alone how to do it.
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!
All my best,
pyo_pyo

I think I follow your post..
AFAIK there is no way to stop TM from eventually deleting the material from the oldest backup.. Indeed just hoping that the data is stored until the drive is full is not necessarily going to work.
You need to have another storage and copy the backups.backupdb to it. Store this drive in a draw somewhere.
Do you still have the old laptop . if so do not do a TM backup of it. Do a direct disk image plus copy and paste and perhaps TM as well.. of all the files and store that. Much easier when you later need access to a file to get it direct rather than extract it from a backup.
1TB drives are now so cheap .. if the data has any value to you. Go and buy one or two.. spread it around. Store offsite. If anything is valuable it is valuable to store offsite as well.

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How do I protect a Time Machine back up from being automatically deleted during new backups?

Hi, any help would be appreciated.
I used an external hard drive Time Machine backup to restore my music and photos after losing nearly everything during an update. I followed the instruction from Apple Support and turned on TM so I could enter and recover the needed libraries. Unfortunately I wasn't aware that TM would continuously backup for the next 7 hours as I searched for duplicate music files, merged iPhoto libraries, etc...until I received the message that TM had deleted all my backups (all the way back to 2010).
Just to head off the "how could you not know?!" comments - I had previously left TM off and just selected backup now when I attached the external drive.
The good news is that the backup I used to restore my music and iPhoto library from May still appears to be intact, so how do I make sure it doesn't get deleted the next time I back up? My concern is, once I've removed all the duplicate music and photo files I would like to back up again prior to upgrading to Yosemite - just in case I experience the same issues with losing files again I'd like to be prepared.
My external hard drive is an Iomega with 83.1 GB free of 320 GB.
I'm on a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro / 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 / 43.76 GB free of 159.18 GB
OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If it's written for someone who is not very technologically advanced (read: step-by-step instructions) that would be even better! Thanks in advance!

You need to get a bigger external drive, 2 to 4 times the amount of data you are backing up. I would also recommend a minimum of 2 backups. You can do that with 2 Time Machine drives or use a clone to give you a bootable backup.
Time Machine FAQ
Try E1 in the 1st linked article.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Time Machine Troubleshooting Problems
Time Machine Versus Clones and Archives
Clone - Carbon Copy Cloner (Often recommended as it has more features than some others)
Clone – Data Backup
Clone – Deja Vu
Clone - SuperDuper
Clone - Synk
Clone Software – 6 Applications Tested
Commonly Used Backup Methods

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive

How can I delete time machine back up from my computer hard drive?

How to Delete a Time Machine Backup - YouTube
If you want to remove an entire Time Machine backup on a backup drive, then the easiest way to do that is to erase the backup drive using Disk Utility. However, this will delete everything on the disk:
Drive Erase Snow Leopard and Earlier
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select the volume you wish to format from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.

How do I restart Time Machine back-up from scratch?

How do I restart Time Machine back-up from scratch? I have a MacBook Air that was my wife's - now given to my daughter for school. My wife never used Time Machine to back up (she simply copied files to an external drive), so before clearing her files off the Mac HD, I tried using Time Machine for the first time with an external HD. However, the Time Machine back up repeatedly failed after about 2GB of 28GB of files. I manually copied my wife's 28GB of files to another external HD and deleted all the files off the Mac HD. I then reformatted the external Time Machine drive. But when I try to use Time Machine to back up the MacBook Air as it is now with my daughter's files on the Mac HD to the external TM drive, Time Machine acts as if the 28GB of my wife's deleted files are still on the Mac HD and fails back-up after counting to about 2GB, even though there aren't even 2GB of files on the Mac HD now and nothing on the external TM drive. I don't need to save any back-ups of how the MacBook used to be - I just need to start from scratch with how the computer is now. Can anyone please tell me how to get Time Machine to think the MacBook is a brand new computer and act as if it's a first time ever back up? I tried updating to Yosemite, and tried renaming the computer in System Preferences>Sharing, plus (as noted above) deleting all the old files off the Mac HD and reformatting the external Time Machine drive - none of that worked. All I can do at the moment is manually copy my daughter's files to an external HD - very frustrating.

Hmmm.. Office is not hard to restore.
You have something major wrong (Yosemite being the primary one).
Do a verify of the source drive.. to do that you will need to boot to the recovery.. and run the disk utility from there.. it sounds like your main disk is corrupted.
Once that is complete, delete the current setup of TM and try again.. use the widget to find out why it is failing..
See Troubleshooting.
A1, A4 and A5 for further info.
http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Good luck with it..
I would also download carbon copy cloner.. it is $40, but you can use it free for a time.. forget if a week or a month??.. to try out.. and make a proper backup before you start.. CCC is far more reliable than TM.. and in fact you might decide to simply forget about TM if it works and pays the $40.. because you can produce a bootable clone on the external drive which is a heck of a lot easier to use than TM.

I would like to access an old Time machine back up from a Core 2 Duo Macbook, but no longer have a Mac. Can I access the backup from a cheaper old ibook, or would I need a Macbook. Is the OS important?

I would like to access an old Time machine back up from a Core 2 Duo Macbook, but no longer have a Mac. I am going to buy a used machien to acess this. Can I access the backup from a cheaper old ibook, or would I need a Macbook. Is the OS important?

right click on the folder that shows with the red negative sign, and select to "get info". In the long skinny window that appears, look in the "sharing and permissions" section. In the "name" column, you should see your current user name. Ensure the "privilege" is set to Read and Write. If your user name is not in the name column, click the + sign, and add it, ensuring the privileges are set to Read and Write

How do I delete a Time Machine back-up from my trash?

I use an external hard disc for my Time Machine back-ups.
In order to make some room on the external hard disc for some other files I wanted to store while I reformatted their original disc, I moved the Time Machine bach-ups into my iMac Trash.
Now when I try to delete thes old unwanted back-ups I get this message -
There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?
I've tried selececting Remove All Items but they just stay there.
I tried to darg them out onto the desktop but although that creates a new folder, the back-ups stay in the trash.
I've tried switching Time Macine off in the preferences bu that doesn't help.
Can anyone help me with emptying them?

dear Sue
i've tried the alt solution to empty trash but it does not work
I still got the -8003 error
for emptying time machine backups that i foolishly put in the trash
i've also tried this solution using terminal and it did not work either
http://www.imore.com/how-force-empty-trash-your-mac-using-terminal
any help you might offer would be greatly appreciated
i am using a 24 inch iMac
OSX 10.6.8
Message was edited by: summer_laughter

Trying to restore Time Machine back-up from WD MyBookLive - whats the Password?!

Hi all,
my son has a Macbook Pro running Lion. Yesterday it hung when downloading the 10.7.3 update and wouldn't reboot properly.
We logged in via safe mode and managed to sort this out, however I was initially looking at doing a restore from his time machine back-up. I had booted the recovery partition and chosen the 'restore from a time machine back-up' - then it had prompted me for a username and password to gain access to the back-up...
When I set up the Time Machine Back-ups I always have selected (as recommended by Apple and Western Digital) the Guest user. Therefore I have no idea what the username or password should be??? I've hunted on the web for any kind of answer however theres no certain answer...
I'm hoping someone out there will know what username and password it is expecting? Is this from Time Machine, or a default username/password set by the Western Digital NAS???
I hope someone can help - my time machine backs up both my own, my wifes and my sons macbooks, its all very well having the back-ups but not worth it if I can never get access to them when I need to!
thanks in advance

I think you are not restoring your files in the correct way.
If what you want to do is to restore a complete Time Machine backup, you have to do it in OS X Recovery, so first hold Command and R keys while your Mac is starting up. Then, choose the option to restore a Time Machine backup, and follow its steps.
If you want to restore individual files, you cannot restore that type of user files because you are using them. Instead, you can restore individual files in your user folders. Read > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

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How do i restore all my data from a time machine back up on an external hard dirve???
From an iMac to a Macbook Pro.

I tried this but my external drive is not appearing for some reason. Although it is accessible through finder.
Is ther perhaps another way of doing this??
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Access individual files on old Mac time machine back up from new Mac

Hi
I have a never Mac Book Pro with 10.9.1 I am using now. I have a old time machine on a external drive that was made with a old Mac Pro The time machine back up is over 15 TB and I no longer own the Mac Pro used to make the time machine backups. I want to access the old time machine back up and copy over a only a few files I need about 500. I cannot use migration assistant because I cannot move the entire back up as the entire back is too big.
Thanks

right click on the folder that shows with the red negative sign, and select to "get info". In the long skinny window that appears, look in the "sharing and permissions" section. In the "name" column, you should see your current user name. Ensure the "privilege" is set to Read and Write. If your user name is not in the name column, click the + sign, and add it, ensuring the privileges are set to Read and Write

New MacBook Pro Can I set up from a time machine Back Up from my Macbook?

I have a 3 month old Macbook (white) that I have been happy with so I've decided to upgrade to a Macbook Pro. Is there any disadvantage up transfering the data from a Time Machine Back Up since the systems are physically different?

Is there any disadvantage up transfering the data from a Time Machine Back Up since the systems are physically different?
Use the Migration Assistant to migrate from the backup instead of restoring the whole system; it will appear when the MacBook Pro is started up for the first time.
(45788)

Don't want to loose time machine back ups after Lion

Hi All. When I got my new MBP, I used my time machine backup during instillation to transfer files and settings from my previous MacBook. Now, my time machine backups only go as far back as when I got my new computer. All the previous back ups that I had accumulated with my previous MacBook compter were erased. I just updated my OS to Lion, and I'm wondering if this will happen again when I connect my external hard drive. Will I loose all my previous backups? Is there a way to prevent this? thanks. Kelly

kelly9159 wrote:
Hi All. When I got my new MBP, I used my time machine backup during instillation to transfer files and settings from my previous MacBook.
I just updated my OS to Lion, and I'm wondering if this will happen again
No (unless you erased the HD before installing Lion). You have the same Mac, and the same HD, so it will do a normal "incremental" backup, of the new and changed items.
It will be lengthy, of course, since the whole version of OSX is new, so there's a lot to do.

Removing old Time Machine back ups from Time Capsule

I have just purchased a new iMac (2.7GHz Intel Core i5 running LION) that I am using to replace both my wife's old iMac (2GHz Intel Core Duo running Snow Leopard) and my 17" MBP Intel Core Duo - we've both made the switch to iPads for lap browsing. I migrated my user accounts from both the MBP and old iMac to the new iMac and I want use TimeCapsule as my back up disk. However, I cannot back up my new machine because the older back ups that I no longer need take up most of the TCs disk space.
How can I remove the older, no longer needed backups from TimeCapsule to make room to run back ups of my new iMac? I've tried deleting the sparsebundle, but that did not seem to work.
If anyone can help, please be as detailed as possible in how to remove the back ups. Thanks in advance.
- Ryan

Thanks for the tip.
You did forget to mention that it is necessary to click on the "MANUAL SETUP" button located at lower left part of the Airport Utility window to get to the Disk.
I went through the more generic/standard setup windows a couple of times because I was not seeing the disk and thought I was missing something. After I had an "ah-ha" moment and clicked the manual setup key, everything was there and erasing the disk was easy.
Thanks again,
RT

I want to use Time Machine to restore from one IMAC to a different IMAC. How do I do that?

I use Time Capsule to back up two different IMACs. I want to use the back up from machine A to restore machine B.
When I am on machine B I can't see the back up on machine A. How do I do this?

Look at Q16.
The whole 14-17 is good to read so you understand what you are doing.
http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

How do I copy my time machine back up from a smaller Hard disk to a larger hard disk; so that I can then continue to back up, through Time machine, on the larger hard disk?

I am using time machine for backing up on an external hard disk. This has now become full and every back up results in the deletion of the first back up on the hard drive.
I have bought a larger hard drive now and am trying to copy the back up from the smaller hard drive to the new larger hard drive, using Finder. This is not happening and the message I am getting is
"The volume has the wrong case sensitivity for a back up"

Hello UmeshNB,
Thanks for the question. Based on what you stated, it seems like you are not able to move a backup to another drive. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you isolate or resolve the issue.
Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive - Apple Support
If it is not formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID partition. If you do not know how, see the steps in this article.
If the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended but without journaling, OS X may state that "the volume has the wrong case sensitivity" to be used as a back up disk.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Mario

Time Machine Back-up from External Hard Drive

Time Machine only back-up what is on my MBP Drive,
Can I back-up files from an external usb drive that is connected to MBP to TM???
if no what is a good back-up software to use????
Thanks.

This is in regards to the function of an iMac (new 3.06 GHz intel dual core processor), Time Machine, Lacie 500 GB hard drive and an APC 750 standard battery back up system. This is the closest thread regarding my particular issue and hope other users find this useful and there is some response.
The time machine backup using the Lacie external hard drive is working fine when everything is on. I did not install the software that came with the APC 750 battery backup since a) when connected to the iMac, the iMac recognizes it and appears to be working and b) the forums recommended the software isn't needed and not overly compatible. I have the iMac plugged into the Master Outlet that controls a few slave periperals to save power, etc. The instructions indicate external hard drives are good to be plugged into slave outlets.
The issue I am having is that I have the Lacie hard drive plugged into the slave outlet and everytime I put the computer to sleep, I have to remember to eject the Lacie hard drive, since the battery backup (APC) shuts down the slave peripherals down rather abrubtly.
I'm wondering if this is something I will have to routinely remember to do or is there a way around this. It is a hassle since I am basically force to do manual backups using time machine since the computer is on (not sleeping) from about 5pm to 11pm and on weekends. I don't want to leave the Lacie external hard drive running perpetually in the surge outlets either because it seems to become active for no apparent reason...I believe I have all the settings set correctly, but this once an hour time machine backup may have something to do with it?
It should be noted that the Lacie hard drive seems to be active (ie beeping, spinning) during non-scheduled Time Machine backup. It did this when I kept it on all the time before my APC UPS, and as mentioned above, it still does. It seems to kick on more than once an hour. I always look in the time machine preferences and it will say for example, next time machine backup at 11:15 am, and the current time will be say 10:10 am. You would expect not to hear a peep from the Lacie external hard drive until 11:15 am, but I do.
In summary: 1) do I need to always eject the external hard drive disc when plugged into slave outley, and perform manual time machine backups and 2) while the computer is on, is it normal for the drive to activate during non-scheduled time machine backups?
Thanks,
Robbie

Help-Want to lock Time Machine back-up from being deleted

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